Her father, farmer Mohammed Ibrahim, said: ‘I waited half an hour, hoping that my daughter would wake up but, unfortunately, unlike the rest of the girls, she did not.’

Police are questioning the doctor who performed the operation and called for an autopsy following 13-year-old Suhair’s death in a village north of Cairo last Thursday.

Her sister was said to have been circumcised by the same doctor two years ago. Egypt outlawed female genital mutilation after a 12-year-old died in 2007.

Soad Shalaby, a spokeswoman for Egypt’s National Council for Women, said: ‘The parents are acting under a false traditional custom.

‘They are ignorant, it’s not Islamic. I don’t think punishing them will help.

‘The government has to be more strict in enforcing the law and punishing the doctors and nurses involved.’

Efua Dorkenoo, from women’s rights group Equality Now, blamed doctors who made money from female genital mutilation. ‘It’s a barbaric practice linked to virginity and purity and religion is used to reinforce it but there is nothing in the Koran about it,’ she said. ‘The courts should decide but it’s unlikely the doctor or parents will be prosecuted.